2012 Australian Grand Prix

Ferrari may be struggling with their car but they were by far the fastest team in the pits in Melbourne.

Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa’s five visits to the pits were the five quickest pit stops of the race.

Ferrari made an effort to improve their pit stops in the second half of last year. But although they were able to turn their cars around more quickly, they struggled to achieve consistency. Today’s performance shows they’ve done that now.

Stefano domenicali congratulated his team’s performance in the pits, saying: “I want to highlight the performance of the crew during the pit stops: looking at the figures, we were the fastest both in terms of outright performance and on average.

“I am keen to mention this, because we have worked a great deal on this front: already in the second part of 2011, the situation was better and today we have taken another step forward.”

Red Bull and Mercedes were the fastest crews in the pits last year, but they couldn’t match Ferrari today.

2012 Australian Grand Prix pit stop times

Here are all the pit stop times (pit entry to pit exit) from the Australian Grand Prix:

Driver

Team

Pit stop time

Gap

On lap

1

Fernando Alonso

Ferrari

21.910

34

2

Fernando Alonso

Ferrari

22.035

0.125

13

3

Felipe Massa

Ferrari

22.103

0.193

37

4

Felipe Massa

Ferrari

22.313

0.403

11

5

Felipe Massa

Ferrari

22.528

0.618

28

6

Jenson Button

McLaren

22.837

0.927

36

7

Lewis Hamilton

McLaren

22.862

0.952

17

8

Mark Webber

Red Bull

22.915

1.005

37

9

Nico Rosberg

Mercedes

23.017

1.107

31

10

Pastor Maldonado

Williams

23.166

1.256

37

11

Nico Rosberg

Mercedes

23.203

1.293

12

12

Jean-Eric Vergne

Toro Rosso

23.203

1.293

19

13

Daniel Ricciardo

Toro Rosso

23.257

1.347

22

14

Jenson Button

McLaren

23.275

1.365

16

15

Mark Webber

Red Bull

23.302

1.392

14

16

Kimi Raikkonen

Lotus

23.310

1.400

37

17

Pastor Maldonado

Williams

23.427

1.517

16

18

Lewis Hamilton

McLaren

23.464

1.554

36

19

Jean-Eric Vergne

Toro Rosso

23.569

1.659

37

20

Bruno Senna

Williams

23.777

1.867

30

21

Sergio Perez

Sauber

23.882

1.972

24

22

Sebastian Vettel

Red Bull

24.131

2.221

37

23

Kamui Kobayashi

Sauber

24.162

2.252

36

24

Sebastian Vettel

Red Bull

24.256

2.346

16

25

Daniel Ricciardo

Toro Rosso

24.348

2.438

38

26

Heikki Kovalainen

Caterham

24.397

2.487

14

27

Vitaly Petrov

Caterham

24.579

2.669

18

28

Paul di Resta

Force India

24.579

2.669

33

29

Heikki Kovalainen

Caterham

24.580

2.670

34

30

Bruno Senna

Williams

24.599

2.689

1

31

Kimi Raikkonen

Lotus

24.881

2.971

19

32

Paul di Resta

Force India

24.933

3.023

13

33

Timo Glock

Marussia

25.046

3.136

36

34

Charles Pic

Marussia

25.303

3.393

21

35

Kamui Kobayashi

Sauber

25.346

3.436

13

36

Timo Glock

Marussia

26.322

4.412

20

37

Heikki Kovalainen

Caterham

28.888

6.978

37

38

Bruno Senna

Williams

30.888

8.978

47

39

Daniel Ricciardo

Toro Rosso

32.319

10.409

1

40

Charles Pic

Marussia

48.984

27.074

35

NB. A complete list of stationary times is not available.

2012 Australian Grand Prix tyre strategies

A two-stop strategy was the preferred approach this year. The durability and performance of the medium tyre led most drivers to switch to it at the first round of pit stops.

I think that without the SC Perez couldn’t have made a 1 stopper and Alonso and other would have had to stop again as well.

But Its good to see that Ferrari did manage to make the improvements they were targeting in some areas. I also think that the McLaren doing those two stops right in tandem might become more of a trend. Had Red Bull done that more often for Webber in the past, he would have been closer to Vettel in many occasions.

Interesting to see how far Mercedes have dropped in that aspect though. Is that due to the small changes with the airguns, or just the fact that they only did 20 stops and neither Rosberg nor the team seemed to be entirely concentrated on it after the shock of their speed going for a walk in the park outside the track.

Excuse my poor memory, but weren’t RedBull the team that allows the trailing driver to pit first as evidenced in Australia, Spa etc an not to mention the British Grand Prix during which Mark Webber gained 11 seconds on Vettel. Also, I’m pretty sure that ‘McLaren doing those two stops right in tandem might become more of a trend’ was done even last year by RedBull

Yes, after having Webber fall back due to poorly timed pitstops Red Bull did start to do that last year and it helped a lot to solve that problem.

The only time it was done almost that close was in Monaco, and that was partly due to one of them having a problem at their pit stop, making the other one wait in line. Exactly what McLaren were afraid of now, I guess.

I don’t think so, it can easily backfire if the first stop is slow and it puts a lot of pressure on the mechanics to get both stops right. Good work by Ferrari, at least they’ve done something right this season!

very impressive from perez with only 1 stop. Alonso did well to get his Ferrari to 5th place however, I believe Massa wont be at Ferrari next year hes not good enough anymore, he has never fully recovered from his accident in Hungary 2009.
It was a great win for button, I honestly thought Lewis would drive off into the distance but he was just unlucky today.

Fair point. what I meant was that Massa was fighting for the championship in 2008 and since 09 he has been no where near what he used to be, maybe its Fernando’s influence.
as we all new Mclaren were quick specially lewis with the 1 flying lap (that was vettel style)
but I was expecting the 1 of the 2 mercs on the front row, mainly schumi but sadly not this time. however Malaysia looks like its going to be a wet race, saw the weather report earlier. so we are in for another great race by the looks of things

Keith, would you consider sorting the tyre strategy table by finishing position, rather than starting position? And/or include a column that shows how many places they gained/lost during the race. It would help us to analyse which tyre strategies were most effective. If it’s not too much work, of course.

Typically most times when though Lewis is leading Button, Button easily gets to be allowed to pit first on a need to basis, This time Lewis needed the tyres more than the so called “smooth” driving Button. Why couldn’t Mclaren let Lewis pit???????

I’m a bit worried that Vettel was able to get those softs to last that long. I couldn’t hear what Lewis said but it seemed to me he was wanting to end his second stint on mediums due to wear while Vettel was still doing well on softs…
On the other hand Jenson looked ok

@Kenneth Ntulume,
That was the trick Mclaren was using to get Button close to Hamilton last year.
Only when Button could manage his tyres did he pit later, but if his tyres were about to go off, they’d pit him first despite if Hamilton is leading. At other times they’d pit Hamilton much ealier while he still has life in his tyres, just so Button gets the optimum stop.
I have obseved closely all of Mclarens stop and have noticed the trend.
Perhaps Button has it in his contract that he can choose when he stops.
Lets see if they continue with the trend again this year.

So when Martin Whitmarsh states they have equal treatment is he lying ? I honestly think its as simple as, ‘the guy in front has first call’ I think it’s realistic to say Lewis is faster over one lap, but over a race distance JB is a match for him and a tad more intelligent in the decisions he makes but then he has far more experience

The argument is Mclaren are incocnsistent with the leading driver dictates the pit schedule policy.
It just seems that policy is only used when Button is the driver leading.

The races I have seen when Button has damaged his tyres, he is usually stopped first even if he is in 6th or further back.

I had made this observation repeatedly since Button joined Mclaren.
It doesn’t matter which one of them is faster what matters is that they extract the maximum from both drivers. And not seem to give the besdt treatment to one.

Look at the races Hamilton was in contention to win last year. The team failed to focus on the driver ahead.